Back in February, I have made a few changes in order to get a better diversification in my Smith Manoeuvre investment strategy. Therefore, I decided to add US, Canadian and International index funds. Unfortunately, I noticed in March that all my transactions have not been done according to my instruction (it is apparently quite a feat to write down 4 transactions!).

Nonetheless, I have made some great picks since my new investments really picked up during the March Rally. It is good to see that my Smith Manoeuvre account is showing a positive year to date return or 4.2%. Overall (since February 2007), my Smith Manoeuvre account shows a negative return of -25%. It is obviously quite tough to compensate for 2008 in a single quarter! It will actually going to take years to come back to a decent level.

So here’s what my portfolio look like as of March 31st:

– National Bank Divided Funds:$4,942

– Sprott Canadian Equity:$3,163

– Omega preffered shares:$101

– Omega American consensus:$183

– Altamira Canadian index:$0

– Altamira American index :$177

Total in my Smith Manœuvre :$8,566

I am still not convinced from the March rally that the stock market is back on track and that everything will come back to normal in 2009. While I believe we will see our money back (for those who are still invested in the market!) and that it is currently an opportunity of a lifetime, what happened in March just seems unreal. On the other side, what happened back in September and October 2008 seemed unreal as well! This is why I stick to my investing strategy no matter what I think and I am not trying to sell to make a quick profit and come back into the market after the next correction. I still think that you should not do market timing.

I am now investing $500 per month into my leverage strategy and I don’t plan to make much modification for a while. I will look at what is going on on the markets and look at my investment strategy next quarter but don’t expect many changes. I think I will keep this investment strategy for the upcoming year and keep dollar cost averaging the market!

Comments

By comparison, my TFSA account is up a bit less than 1% since January — 100% GIC.

I don’t believe we’ve hit bottom yet; Canadian Capitalist’s Sleepy Portfolio made NO gains since inception, and market volatility reigns supreme. It may be great for the day traders, when stocks change in value by 25% in a week, but not for my type of trading.

Thanks for sharing your SM adventures. I too am using the SM and don’t know anyone else who is so it is nice to know what others are experiencing. I have been thinking i need to diversify my reinvestment portion as well since so far it has all been into one fund. This fund to date is up 12 % and my ROC fund is up 22% so my SM is going super well and only 3 more years to pay off my mortage and be mortage free by 40!